Turkey’s unresolved Kurdish question has massive impacts on security, governance, and human rights in the Middle East and beyond. It directly and indirectly involves multiple non-state actors and regional and global powers. The three countries in which armed conflicts related to it are fought—Turkey, Iraq and Syria—have a combined population of over 140 million people. These local conflicts have intersected with larger conflicts of global importance, including the fight against ISIS and the Ukraine war. In addition to Turks and Kurds, nearly every other ethnic and religious group in the region is impacted. The problems that gave rise to these conflicts—autocracy, interventionism, nationalism and the nation-state, sectarianism and religious fundamentalism—are global.

For all of these reasons, understanding the Kurdish question in Turkey and what steps might be needed to find political solutions to it is essential for regional and global peace and security.

This collection launches on September 21st, the International Day of Peace, as an ongoing, open-ended project intended to advance that understanding. It will address the impacts of conflict on the ground, the roles of different local, regional and global political actors, what peace might look like, and what could be done to achieve it under today’s conditions.

Turkey’s Cross-Border Operations

Situation Update: North and East Syria | Helez Abdulaziz | 21 September 2023

Situation Update: The Kurdistan Region of Iraq | Kamal Chomani | 21 September 2023